According to current United States Postal Service (USPS) procedures, the local post office (destination delivery unit) is responsible for identifying those mailpieces that are incorrectly addressed and require forwarding. The mail carrier typically recognizes the address on the mailpiece as no longer valid (incorrect) during the "casing" operation at the post office or during an attempted delivery of the mailpiece to the designated destination address. Most often the identification of incorrectly addressed mailpieces will only occur if the addressee completes and submits a Change of Address Order Form that requests mailpiece forwarding. A mailpiece identified as in need of forwarding is manually segregated by the carrier from correctly addressed mailpieces and removed from the mail stream to a USPS Computerized Forwarding System (CFS) for address correction.
The CFS currently utilized by the USPS is a semi-automated, computerized machine that transports the incorrectly addressed mailpieces past a human operator at a very slow rate. The operator reads each mailpiece and enters into a processing computer an extract of the name of the addressee and invalid destination address on the mailpiece. The computer searches a National Change of Address (NCOA) database maintained by the USPS according to the input invalid destination address and displays for the operator a menu of one or more possible choices of names for persons at that address who have filed a mail forwarding request. If there is a match between the name and address on the mailpiece and a name and address in the menu, the operator will select the match to signal the computer and the mailpiece will be tagged for forwarding and manually or mechanically labeled with a forwarding address. A POSTNET (bar/half-bar) destination bar code for the forwarding address is also printed and the mailpiece is returned to the mail stream for normal processing and delivery to the addressee.
A simple example of the flow of an incorrectly addressed mailpiece from an addressor in Dallas to an incorrect address in Boston and then to the correct forwarding address in Los Angeles will illustrate the inherent economic and time concern drawbacks associated with the current USPS mail forwarding system. In Dallas, the mailpiece is deposited in the mail stream by the addressor and processed by the USPS automated postal equipment at a General Mail Facility (GMF) where a destination (POSTNET) bar code corresponding to the destination address in Boston is printed on the mailpiece. The mailpiece is then collected with other similarly coded mailpieces and delivered to Boston where the address on the mailpiece will be checked for the first time for validity. If the mailpiece is found to be incorrectly addressed, the mailpiece is removed from the mail stream and sent to the nearest CFS site to be labeled with the forwarding address designated by the addressee in Los Angeles. A destination (POSTNET) bar code for the forwarding address is then printed and the mailpiece is returned to the mail stream to be transported across the country to Los Angeles for delivery to the forwarding address.
The current mail forwarding system makes inefficient use of limited USPS resources by unnecessarily transporting incorrectly addressed mailpieces to the local post office for the incorrect address before identification, address correction and forwarding occur. Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus that will identify incorrectly addressed mailpieces prior to the time they are delivered to the local post office for the mailpiece destination address. Furthermore, there is a need for an apparatus that will obtain the forwarding address for the addressee from the incorrect address and then properly label the mailpiece for forwarding.